Tuesday, July 19

News of the world: Murdochs in Parliament and death of hacking whistleblower Sean Hoare

I'm watching Mr. Murdoch father, "This is the most humble day of my life.", and son answering the MPs and came to write some remarks but came across with the Sean Hoares death last Monday. Anita Singh did a good article at The Telegraph:

Phone hacking: Profile of Sean Hoare, the News of the World journalist and whistleblower

by Anita Singh

"Mr Hoare was the whistleblower who first linked Andy Coulson to the phone-hackingscandal.

The ex-News of the World showbusiness reporter readily admitted that he had been involved in phone hacking.

Later that month, he spoke to BBC Radio 4's PM programme and went into further detail, alleging that Coulson had lied to Parliament when he denied knowledge of phone hacking.

"There's an expression: 'the culture of dark arts'. You were given a remit - just get the story, that's the most important thing," Hoare said.

"I've stood by Andy and been requested to tap phones, to hack into them and so on. He was well aware that the practice exists. To deny it is a lie. It's simply a lie.

"It was always done in the language of, 'Why don't you practise some of your dark arts on this', which was a metaphor for saying, 'Go and hack into a phone'.

"Such was the culture of intimidation and bullying that you would do it because you had to produce results. And, you know, to stand up in front of a Commons committee and say, 'I was unaware of this under my watch' was wrong."

Hoare claimed that hacking was "endemic" in the newspaper industry and said he was speaking out because he felt it unfair that royal correspondent Clive Goodman had been painted as a rogue reporter acting alone. However, Hoare also harboured a bitterness towards Coulson, a man he once regarded as a friend.

Coulson was in charge of The Sun's Bizarre column when Hoare, a former trainee on the Watford Observer, joined as a showbusiness reporter. Hoare moved to the Sunday People - where his boss was Neil Wallis - before moving to the News of the World in 2001, where Coulson had become deputy editor.

But in 2005, Coulson sacked him. Hoare's immersion in the showbiz life had led him to become dependent on drink and drugs. "I was paid to go out and take drugs with rock stars - take drugs with them, take pills with them, take cocaine with them. It was so competitive. You are going to go beyond the call of duty. You are going to do things that no sane man would do," he told The Guardian.

Fleet Street contemporaries remember him as an increasingly shambolic figure who loved the tabloid game even as the pressures took their toll. One recalled him turning up to cover the wedding of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills in Ireland in 2002 with a wallet filled with cocaine.

"If you could imagine the stereotypical image of News of the World hack, it would be him," said one former colleague. "He was overweight and a heavy boozer. He was always propping up the bar, often before lunch. He was old school. But he loved the game and never recovered from losing his job."

Another colleague remembered him fondly as a journalist who was kind and generous to those around him. "He was a genuinely nice bloke who would help you no matter who you were, and always looked out for the junior reporters on the paper," said a former Sun reporter.

"But the drink and the drugs took their toll and he was deteriorating before our eyes. It was really sad to see."

His health deteriorated - he told Nick Davies, the Guardian journalist, that his liver was in such a bad way that a doctor marvelled at the fact he was still alive. Davies said after his death was announced that Hoare had shown courage in going public.

Hoare spent time in rehab in an attempt to conquer his addictions. He did not take payment for his interviews about the phone hacking scandal and expressed hopes that tabloid journalism would be cleaned up as a result of his whistleblowing.

Police said that Hoare's death at his home in Watford was "unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious". That did not stop conspiracy theorists flooding the web with claims that he had become the latest victim of the 'dark arts'."

Now we have everything a huge scandal requires and I believe that it will end the same way: doubts, conspiracy theories, suspicions and some resignations.I will keep watching the Murdochs at Parliament and count how many more "NO"s Mr. Murdoch father will say and can't hardly wait to watch Rebekah Brooks. These are the news of the world!